This Brief History of Time is mainly aimed at covering the History of
Yorkshire, but by necessity it also covers parts of British History as
well; the history has been split into three major parts; just click on
the relevant link to read about that period of History:

This record of early history could have
started right back before the age of the dinosaurs, due to many fossil
finds and the fact that Yorkshire has its own Jurassic
Coast, it could also have started around 125,000 years ago with
the earliest evidence, or signs, of human occupation in Yorkshire; however,
it is only from around 10,000 to 8000 BC, at the end of the last Glacial
period, that continuous human occupation seems to have occurred; therefore;
this is when this early history starts.

8000
to 7000 BC:

The first evidence of any human activity in Yorkshire itself is restricted
to a hunter gatherer lifestyle dating back to around 8000 to 7000 BC;
during that time, the appearance of the terrain would have differed
greatly from that which exists today; there was a land connection between
what is now Germany and eastern England, making it possible for groups
of hunters to wander into the area; when the first people arrived there
the climate would have been sub arctic and the animals that the Paleolithic
groups found would have included the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros
and the reindeer.

In a cave near Settle, in the Yorkshire Dales, known as Victoria
Cave , late upper palaeolithic projectile points were found that
include the bone head of a harpoon which was dated to within 110 years
of 8270 BC and a cave near Malham in the northern Pennines, known as
Chapel Fell Cave,
may have been used as a hunting lookout during the Mesolithic period
because trapezoidal microliths used in wooden shafts as arrows were
found in the collection of flint when the cave was excavated; animal
and fish bones were also found there, including hare, fox, roe deer,
badger, a large bird and perch.

7000 to 5000 BC:

The Marsden area of the Pennines was a seasonal hunting ground for early
humans in the Mesolithic period; evidence for this dates back to around
7000 BC with the finding of stone Age tools at Pule Hill, Warcock Hill,
Standedge & March Hill and relics of an early hunting, gathering and
fishing community have also been found on the North York Moors; the
evidence for this includes a widespread scattering of flint tools and
the barbed flint flakes used in arrows and spears.

The earliest known evidence of human presence in the area of the Vale
of Pickering dates back to the Mesolithic period, around 7000 BC; the
most important remaining settlement of this period is that at Star Carr
near Scarborough, where, due to waterlogged conditions, a considerable
quantity of organic remains as well as flint tools, have survived; this
is Britainís best-known Mesolithic site.

The site, on the eastern shores of glacial Lake Pickering, was surrounded
by birch trees, some of which had been cleared and used to construct
a rough platform of branches and brushwood; lumps of turf and stones
had been thrown on top of this construction to make a village site;
the site was probably visited from time to time by about four or five
families who were engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants
as well as manufacturing tools and weapons and working skins for clothes.

By 5000 BC Britain had become separated from mainland Europe after rising
sea levels had created the southern area of the North Sea; the climate
improved steadily over the following millenia and a richer natural vegetation
started to cover the land including birch, hazel, elm, pine and oak
trees.

On the southern edge of the Vale of Pickering lies West Heslerton, where
excavations have revealed continuous habitation since the Late Mesolithic
Age, about 5000 BC; this site has revealed a great deal of dwelling
and occupation evidence from the Neolithic period to the present day.

Around 3000 BC:

At about this time arable farming and the domestication of animals started
in the area; permanent settlements were built by the Neolithic people
and their culture involved ceremonial burials of their dead in barrows;
the development of farming in the Vale of Pickering during the Neolithic
period is evident in the distribution of earth long barrows throughout
the area.

These early farmers were the first to destroy the forest cover of the
North York Moors; their settlements were concentrated in the fertile
parts of the limestone belt and these areas have been continuously farmed
ever since; the Neolithic farmers of the moors grew crops, kept animals,
made pottery and were highly skilled at making stone implements; they
buried their dead in the characteristic long low burial mounds on the
moors.

The historic landscape of the Great Wold Valley provides an insight
into the activities of prehistoric peoples in the Yorkshire Wolds; the
valley was an important place of worship in prehistoric times and it
houses a number of important scheduled monuments dating back to Neolithic
times.

The Bronze Age:

Rudston is the centre of a prehistoric landscape and four Neolithic
cursus converge on the village area; Argham Dyke, a prehistoric earthwork
dating from the Bronze Age, crosses the area near Rudston; there is
also evidence of Iron Age occupation as revealed by aerial photographs
showing traces of fields, trackways and farms; the Rudston Monolith
at over 25 feet (7.6 metres) is the tallest megalith or Standing stone
in the United Kingdom; it is situated in the churchyard in the village
of Rudston in the East Riding of Yorkshire and is made from moor grit
conglomerate, a material that can be found in the Cleveland Hills inland
from Whitby.
See
photo!

The Thornborough Henges is an ancient
monument complex that includes three aligned henges that give the site
its name; the complex is located near the village of Thornborough, close
to the town of Masham in North Yorkshire; the complex includes many
large ancient structures including a cursus, henges, burial grounds
and settlements; they are thought to have been part of a Neolithic and
Bronze Age 'ritual landscape' comparable with Salisbury Plain and date
from between 3500 and 2500 BC; this monument complex has been called
'The Stonehenge of the North' and has been described by English Heritage
as the most important ancient site between Stonehenge and the Orkney
Islands.

There is a dearth of evidence of human occupation in the Vale of York
until the early Bronze Age around 2300 BC, when the inhabitants of the
Yorkshire region began to use implements made of bronze; as the Neolithic
period gave way to the Bronze Age in the area, people continued to farm,
clear forest and use stone tools; they also continued to hunt in the
upland areas as finds of their barbed and tanged flint arrowheads show;
only gradually did metal tools and weapons become adopted.

The Bronze Age was a time of major changes in burial rituals; the bodies
were buried beneath circular mounds of earth, called round barrows,
and are often found with bronze artefacts; the great majority of known
barrows, such as Ferrybridge Henge, are in prominent upland locations
of the Wolds, Moors and Pennine areas of Yorkshire, but some Bronze
Age remains have been found on the fringes of the Vale of Pickering
and the Vale of York; the Street House Long Barrow at Loftus on the
Cleveland coastline between Saltburn and Staithes was a Bronze Age mound
that had been erected on top of a much earlier burial monument dating
from the Neolithic period.

The Iron Age:

At around 700 BC many of the small early Bronze Age settlements had
become by necessity, larger heavily defended Iron Age settlements; in
East Yorkshire, new burial rites were found, in which the dead were
buried within square ditched barrows and sometimes accompanied by grave
goods including carts or chariots; these started to appear from around
about 500 BC; this was due to the Arras culture of the Parisi tribe.

Prior to their invasion the Romans identified three different Yorkshire
Tribes; the Brigantes, a Celtic tribe who lived between Tyne and
Humber, the Parisi, who inhabited the East Riding and the Carvetii who
occupied Cumbria, which during the time of the Domesday Book was still
part of Yorkshire; life was centred around agriculture and wheat and
barley were the staple foods; the tribes lived mostly in small villages
and raised cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses; however, some of the
tribes were warlike and notable forts can still be discerned on Ingleborough
and at Wincobank, amongst other places; Stanwick seems to have been
the tribal capital of the Brigantes right up until the Roman conquest.

The Roman Conquest:

Roman Britain refers to those
parts of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between 43 and
410 AD and Yorkshire was effectively part of the Roman Empire from 71
AD to around about 410 AD; the Romans built roads northwards through
the northern terrain to Eboracum (York), Derventio (Malton) and Isurium
Brigantum (Aldborough) then onwards to Cataractonium (Catterick) and
York was founded in 71 AD as Eboracum, the Roman capital of Northern
Britain and a fort was established there.

The warlike Picts and Scots were kept at bay by stationing the Roman
IX Legion in the area and most of the Roman settlements north of the
Humber were military stations and in the 2nd century Hadrians Wall was
completed from the River Tyne to the shore of the Solway Firth; in 402
AD the Roman garrison was recalled from York because of military threats
in other parts of the Roman empire.

The last of the Romans left Britain in 410 AD: All Romans were recalled
to Rome and the Emperor Honorious told the people of Britain that they
no longer had a connection to Rome and that they should defend themselves.

Their most abiding legacy in this area is the road system which they
left behind; many modern main roads in Yorkshire, including parts of
the A1, A59, A166 and A1079, still follow the routes of Roman roads.

The Early History, The Middle Ages, The Modern History &
Timeline History